Employee Benefits in Other Countries

Employee Benefits in Other Countries
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
What country other than the United States, Mexico, Canada, or China did you analyze?
I analyzed the employee benefits in the UK and compared them to those in the United States.
What specific benefit did you analyze? Describe it.
I analyzed the paid time off (PTO) benefit. Paid time off benefit entails a bank of days that an employee can draw for sick leave, personal days, vacations, as well as the time that may be required for appointments such as a doctor’s visit. Today, offering PTO seems to surpass the rather traditional vacation and sick time model. This benefit typically includes a specific amount of time that an employee may use for vacations, sick leave and other personal days. In most instances, both full-time and part-time employees are eligible for PTO benefit. However, the amount of time that is allowed is based on an employee’s contract with the organization he/she works for (Sanicola, 2011). This benefit can be classified into two categories; holiday benefits and leave (personal and sick leave) benefits.
How does the benefit work in the United States?
The US does not observe any statutory mandates for annual leave entitlements. The number of days allowed for annual leave is taken as a share of the compensation deal agreed upon by the employee and the employer (Kwon & Hein, 2013). However, according to findings from report released by the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, the average number of paid leave days is six.

Also, the US does not observe any statutory decree for paid sick leave. The amount of time offered for sick leave is also left as a share of the compensation deal between the employee and the employer.
How is the benefit in the country identified in Question 1 similar to the benefit in the United States?
The main similarity in the PTO employee benefits in the USA and UK is that both countries categorize the benefit into two; the holiday/vacation benefits and the leave (sick or personal leave) benefits. Moreover, the governments and organizations in both countries recognize these benefits and their employees have benefited from them. The other similarity is the fact that the amount of time offered as paid time off is not fixed in both countries. The time depends on the particulars of an employee’s employment contract.
How is the benefit in the country identified in Question 1 different from the benefit in the United States?
PTO benefits in USA and those in the UK are different in several ways. For instance, while the paid vacation entitlement in the US is left for the employer and employee to decide, the paid vacation entitlement in the UK is set to at least twenty days for each year, excluding bank holidays. The number of public holidays entitle for pay in the UK is also set to at least eight days per year (Dishman, 2016). The other difference in the PTO benefits in these countries is based on the sick leave and pay. As detailed earlier, the sick leave and pay in the United States are left for the employer and employee to decide. However, the United Kingdom offers twenty-eight sick leave weeks which are compensated at a flat rate of approximately eighty-eight Euros per week. Generally, the main difference in the PTO benefits in the UK and the US is the fact they are mandated by law in the UK and therefore they are somewhat fixed whereas in the US they are taken as a share of the compensation deal to be reached upon by the employer and their employee.
References
Dishman, L. (2016, February 19). How U.S. Employee Benefits Compare To Europe’s. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from https://www.fastcompany.com/3056830/how-the-us-employee-benefits-compare-to-europeKwon, J., & Hein, P. (2013). Employee benefits in a total rewards framework. Benefits Quarterly, 29(1), 32-38. Retrieved from http://www.aon.com/attachments/human-capital-consulting/2013_Benefits_Quarterly_Employee_Benefits_Total_Rewards_Framework.pdfSanicola, L. (2011). Employee Benefits Basics, pp. 7-29. Scottsdale: WorldatWork Press. Retrieved from EBSCO eBook Collection in the Trident Online library.